The Judicial Botanical Entities of Efik.
Ordeal Entities of Efik.
Alright, grab a drink, get comfy, and find your reading glasses. I’m about to take you on a nerdy trip into a bizzare time in human and botanical history.
This is a rollercoaster of a story dealing with judicial beans, scientists poisoning themselves, and how the deadly poison of this bean entity became an important catalyst for the cornerstones of modern day neurology.
The first time I heard the phrase “Trial by Ordeal” was when I was in my high school history class learning about the Salem Witch Trials. I think most of my peers have the same terrifying images I do of innocent people being accused of witchcraft and left to face an impossible and ridiculous trial by ordeal in which the ending scenario was almost always death for the accused, whether they were guilty or not.
Trial by Ordeal is a concept that goes DEEP. These trials were not simply paranoia induced snap judgements on the part of misguided, paranoid English settlers, but in fact, was engrained into the whole prehistoric judicial system dating way back to the 9th century.
All trials by ordeal throughout history go pretty much the same way: Someone is assumed to be guilty -> the assumed guilty party does the trial by ordeal -> the assumed guilty party dies due to an impossible trial (usually by fire or water).
It was all pretty ridiculous and none of it made sense. Until, the Trail by Poison came along and changed the game.
These were trial by ordeals that actually worked. The judges of these ordeals were three mysterious beans who, if eaten, would kill the guilty and purge from the innocent. These poisons produced trails that were so accurate, it actually became a legal means of determining guilt in the Old World.
The Ordeal Beans and their Poisons
There are three judicial poisons of this Ordeal.
Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
The Calabar Bean is the ordeal poison of choice, the Calabar bean flourishes in warm, tropical climates; reaches up to fifty feet in height; and produces lovely red blossoms, followed by long, fat seed pods and hefty dark brown beans.
The alkaloid physostigmine is responsible for the bean’s toxic effects. It works like nerve gas, disrupting the lines of communication between nerves and muscles. The result is copious saliva, seizures, and loss of control over bladder and bowels; eventually, as it becomes impossible to control the respiratory system, death by asphyxiation will occur.
Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
The Strictnine Bean is seed of the Strychnine tree. This is a potent enough poison to make it useful as an ordeal bean. Any prisoner offered Nux vomica seeds to prove their innocence would be well advised to do some fast talking and suggest another ordeal poison, because the strychnine is far more likely to cause convulsions and death by asphyxiation than vomiting.
Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
The Tangena Nut is a relative to the suicide tree Cerbera odol-lam. Tangena is poisonous in all parts; even smoke from the burning wood can be toxic. However, the nuts deliver the poison in the most convenient form for trial by ordeal.
The History and Hype
Our story begins in a place called Efik or, due to a European error in confusing this territory with that of the Kalabari Ijo (known as New Calabar), the Efik area became known as Old Calabar. It was originally a fishing community but as colonizers came in and imperialized the region, Old Calabar developed into a major trading centre from the 17th to the 19th century, exporting slaves and later palm oil in return for European goods. It was around this time when the Calabar bean was gaining a superstitious notoriety. The roots of this custom lie in the Code of Hammurabi and the Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest known systems of law dating back to 1754 BC. Hammurabi's Code is famously known for ancient laws with violent punishments if broken, the most famous to us today being "an eye for an eye". Many crimes back in the day couldn't be proven or disproven with hard evidence so, for these situations, the code called for a "Trial by Ordeal".
Hammurabi's Code wasn't exactly a working legal document, however trial by ordeal remained an integral part of the judicial systems around the world, eventually being adopted into Catholic law. In West Africa, these trials used the power of the beans to detect witches, thieves, liars, and people possessed by evil spirits.
The people of the region were known to force the accused to perform the Calabar Bean’s trial by ordeal named “Chopping Nut”. The Calabar beans would be ground or powdered in a mortar and pestle and then mixed with water to form a milky poison drink. If the accused died, they were judged guilty. If they vomited and purged the poison, they were "proven" innocent and would live another day.
An Ancient Botanical Spirit
A journal called The Great African Islands documents the first impressions of an English missionary named James Sibree. In this journal, he records his observations and experiences in Madagascar and his encounters with the Ordeal Poisons and the culture surrounding it. This gives us essential insight to how the poisons were viewed by caucasian invaders or “colonizers” as well as by the native people of West Africa. On page 73, we see him describe his encounters with the Tangena tree like this:
“While passing through the woods bordering the sea, one frequently comes across the celebrated Tangèna, the tree producing a poisonous nut which was long used in Madagascar as an ordeal for the detection of certain crimes. The tangèna is about the size of a cherry-tree, and with its glossy green leaves, somewhat resembling those of a horse-chestnut in shape, would be a handsome addition to our ornamental shrubs, could it be acclimatised in England. But the tree was valued because of the power supposed to be inherent in the fruit, in which a kind of divine influence was believed to be embodied.”
Later in his mission, he comes to witness a suspenseful trial by ordeal using the Tangena’s poisonous nut. In this instance, the accused was deemed innocent after purging the poison. He recorded the colorful celebrations held for the accused after passing the ordeal
“....Flowers were also carried in the joyful procession which was formed of the friends and relatives of those people who had been cleared of guilt by the tangéna ordeal, and were then termed madio, “clean,” or cleared of blame. These were fastened to small wands, and carried in the hand.”
After pondering on this experience, he records his understanding of the superstitions behind the botanical entity and his awe at how confident the people of Madagascar are in its power
“...It was used chiefly for the detection of infamous crimes when ordinary evidence could not be obtained, such as witchcraft and treason; and it was believed that there was inherent in the fruit some supernatural power, a kind of “searcher of hearts,” which entered into the suspected person, and either cleared him of guilt or convicted him... One of the most remarkable things in connection with this ordeal was the implicit faith of the people generally in its supernatural power, so that they would often demand of the authorities that it should be administered to them to clear”
These accounts give us an insight into how the Ordeal poisons were perceived. The people who used them saw them not as simple poisons, but as supernatural entities that had a knack for judicial duties due to their power to search the heart for evil inventions and dishonesty. A botanical spirit that can read your soul and decide your fate.
Today, we understand the science behind these entities. Physostigmine, the main ordeal poison coming from the Calabar bean, is quickly absorbed in the mouth. When something toxic hits the stomach, the amazingly intelligent tissues and microbes of the body will recognize this is not something they do not want to absorb and will purge the toxin.
Imagine the guilty and innocent scenarios. Make sure to keep in mind the perspectives that we were shown by Rev. Sibree. A person accused during this time is expecting a trial by ordeal and the beans are not only respected, but feared and understood to be supernatural judicial entities.
An innocent person of the time is confident. They know they’ve done nothing wrong, and are confident that the spirit of the bean will know too, so when given the poison, they will drink it down with confidence, showing they have nothing to hide. The poison will hit the stomach which will recognize a toxic substance and the emetic properties of the beans might cause the accused to throw up and escape poisoning. Therefore; declaring them innocent.
A guilty person would have the same perspective and may take the poison and hold it in their mouth or drink it slowly to avoid swallowing it. Therefore; absorbing the poison alkaloid through their mouth into the bloodstream, causing them to die a horrible death and be deemed guilty by the botanical judge.
This logic was not lost on the more scientific and botanically minded of the time. It was somewhat of a secret between those in charge of these ordeals that the fresh beans had a more potent emetic properties than dried beans- meaning the fresh beans were more likely to induce vomiting. So to sway “justice” one way or the other, one could simply change out a fresh bean with a dried one to swing the outcome in their favor.
So insane, so simple, but extremely effective. I wonder what the Strychnine, Tangena, and Physostigma thought while watching these people using their beloved seeds for these ridiculous trials.
Masochistic Toxicologists and Poison Eye Experiments
European botanists and researchers could not avoid becoming aware of the rumored supernatural power of these Beans. It wasn’t long before Physostigma venenosum made its way to the Botanical Gardens in Edinburg, Scotland, which was the home of many missionaries traveling to Africa.
Outside of Africa, the newspapers of the time were full of ads offering trades for the poisons, detailing ordeal incidents, and warnings to visitors with children not to ingest.
You would think all these cautionary tales would deter someone from testing the poisons on themselves. You’d be wrong. Caucasian toxicologists at the time loved to get high and discover new highs.
In 1855 before the first of many medical scientists, a toxicologist named Dr. Robert Christison investigated the effects of the beans by eating part of one himself and documenting his hilarious but terrifying experience. His record of the experience is detailed and drawn out so here’s my play by play for you:
The journal begins with a brief history and Christison’s understanding of the poison, the basics of ordeal trials, and then details the results of his observations of the beans when fed to rabbits. The poison often resulted in a slow painful death of the animals and were recorded in detail by Christison. Naturally, after watching these rabbits suffer gruesome deaths, Christison decides to try it out for himself.
He starts off by ingesting 1/8th of a Calabar Bean. He tells us that he's not sure if he got the right bean since to him, it tasted like "and eatable leguminous seed". He waits an hour and feels nothing, then in the morning, he notices that he's lowkey high and documents enjoying the opioid like numbness the bean is giving him in the limbs.
The next day, he tries double the first dose. He eats 1/4th of a seed and reports feeling giddy after just 15 minutes, he then takes a shower and starts to feel the opioid affects again, this time much more quickly.
At this point, he's satisfied that he does indeed have the correct poison, but is freaking out because he’s poisoned himself and not feeling so hot, so to induce vomiting he proceeds to DRINK HIS OWN SHAVING WATER- hair, shaving cream, skin cells and all- to get himself to purge the seed. The poison, however, is already absorbed into his system and the giddiness he's feeling is intensifying to the point where he's weak and dizzy. He decides to lay in bed and just to be safe, he asks his son to bring a medical professional to stand by.
40 minutes in: He is pale, uncomfortable and having heart palpitations, but still not quite uncomfortable to the point of panic. The medical professional he has on standby went to grab some toxicology reports and equipment, and while he's gone, Dr. Christison starts to feel very sick and attempts to vomit again, but is unable to. He describes an inaction in his abdominal muscles. They’ve grown weak and refuse to contract. He tries a few more times but he can't seem to purge, so eventually gives up. He avoids panic by assuring himself that all that shaving water he drank earlier vomited out the solid of the seed he'd eaten.
After a few hours, Christison stops feeling sick and starts to notice his chest muscle twitching. When he attempts to explain this to his son (who is here for the whole thing by the way) , he is unable to articulate his words. They come out slurred and saliva is falling from his mouth, impeding his speech.
The medical professional comes back and finds his heart pulse extremely weak and his mental state impaired. He is paralyzed and numb in his body, but eventually, his heart pulse improves and he is drowsy and sleeps for a few hours and takes the next day to recover and record the rest of his experience in detail.
When reading this account, Christison’s thoughts during his paralysis were of his family. He reflected on his work in toxicology, after almost killing himself in front of his son. The fear he felt that his son may have watched him die had he not purged the bean before the abdominal paralysis took place. Since then he was much more cautious about self-testing toxic plants. Until he turned 78 and studied the effects of Cocaine on himself to report that it “temporarily banished hunger, thirst, and fatigue”.
An article called “Scientific Martyrdom” would be published to the London Times in 1866 praising the heroic risk and self-sacrifice of people like Dr. Christison and Dr. Toynbee, who died by inhaling too much chloroform in his own self experimentation.
How the Calabar Bean Became a Cornerstone of Neurobiology
Around 1861, Balfour published a botanical description of the plant, formally naming it Physostigma venenosum. Which allowed Dr. Christison’s assistant, Thomas Fraser, to continue his studies in a more professional manner than his mentor.
Amazingly, Fraser was able to concentrate the active constituent of beans into a powder which he called “eserina”. The alkaloid was then isolated and crystallized by Jobst and Hesse of Stuttgart, Germany in 1864, and named the crystallized constituent Physostigmine. Fraser eventually concluded Physostigmine has actions on the pupil, the central nervous system, heart, glands, voluntary muscles, and intestines. He discovered that Physostigmine could constrict dilated pupils and counteracted the effect of atropine on heart rate. This was important since the mydriatic (dilatory) effect of atropine ( a poisonous compound found in many nightshades) had been discovered prior to 1820, but there was no antidote available to constrict the dilation. That's when Fraser’s good friend, Argyll Robinson, an ophthalmologist from Edinburgh, was the first to use Physostigmine in his Optometry practice as a pupil constrictor.
From here, the supernatural position of the Calabar Bean goes on to blow the doors of neurotransmitter research wide open for science in 1926 when a Jewish-German scientist named Otto Loewi was frustrated while attempting to isolate and study a mysterious chemical substance he named “vagusstoff” while studying frog hearts. Each attempt to isolate this chemical substance failed since the body would create an enzyme that would quickly denature the substance and render it destroyed. Finally, a breakthrough came to him at exactly 3am in 1920 when he woke from a dream and discovered that the denaturing of vagusstoff could be prevented by Physostigmine. Finally, in 1926 he was able to concentrate and isolate vagusstoff which we now know today as the important neurotransmitter; Acetylcholine. For this amazing discovery, Loewi was awarded the Nobel Prize alongside a man named Sir Henry Dale, who had proven acetylcholine to be the transmitter between motor nerves and skeletal muscles.
Physostigmine continues it’s energetic power when it was discovered by Mary Broadfoot Walker to be effective in the management of a rare debilitating muscular disease called Myasthenia gravis. In 1934 she found that when administered in the blood, it improved muscular control in her patient within the hour and eventually created an oral version of the treatment after extensive research. Her hard work eventually granted her a medical degree by the University of Edinburgh. This was a huge deal at the time since women were not widely accepted or welcomed in the medical field.
Finally, our story with Physostigmine ends with a seemingly unfair race between two laboratories to see who would be the first to successfully synthesize Physostigmine in a lab. The first laboratory belonged to Dr. Percy Julian who was an African American chemist researching out of DePauw University in Indiana. His competition was with the laboratory of a British chemistry Nobelist named Dr. Robert Robinson. Despite the incredibly unfair advantages held by Dr. Robinson both technologically and socially. He made a crucial mistake and was unable to convert a compound called eserethole to move forward to the next step of the synthesis. After reading up on the failures of his competitor, Dr. Julian requested and compared a sample of Dr. Robinson’s eserethole compound to his own and found them to be completely different. This meant he had not made the same mistake his competitor did, therefore was able to move onto the next step. In 1935 Dr Percy Julian became the first person to successfully synthesize an identical compound to the natural alkaloid, Physostigmine and became a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of essential medicinal drugs we use today such as cortisone, steroids and birth control pills.
To this day, Physostigmine is still used to contract dilated pupils and hasn’t had many intense breakthroughs as it did in the past, nor has it been particularly looked into further.
We’ve pretty much taken a stroll through the historical life of the Calabar bean and it’s cousins from a deadly poisonous botanical entity, to a respected and essential tool used to unlock the gates of our current understanding of modern medicine, neurology and toxicology. One constituent used for fear and judicial duties eventually changed the world by making its debut as a neurotransmitter isolator, practical eye constrictor, and musculo-skeletal stimulant medication. Nature is amazing.
References:
A;, Proudfoot. “The Early Toxicology of Physostigmine: a Tale of Beans, Great Men and Egos.” Toxicological Reviews, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16958557/.
“Episodes in the Story of Physostigmine.” Molecular Interventions, triggered.edina.clockss.org/ServeContent?rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1124%2Fmi.10.1.1.
Fraser, Thomas R. “XLVIII.-On the Physiological Action of the Calabar Bean (Physostigma Venenosum, Balf.): Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh.” Cambridge Core, Royal Society of Edinburgh Scotland Foundation, 17 Jan. 2013, www.cambridge.org/core/journals/earth-and-environmental-science-transactions-of-royal-society-of-edinburgh/article/xlviiion-the-physiological-action-of-the-calabar-bean-physostigma-venenosum-balf/90481F0B2355D8EECF6F3772764E1B78.
“The Great African Island: Chapters on Madagascar, A Popular Account of Recent Researches in the Physical Geography, Geology, and Exploration of the Country, and Its Natural History and Botany ...” Google Play, Google, play.google.com/books/reader?id=TUNCAAAAIAAJ.
Largo, Michael. Big, Bad Book of Botany - the Worlds Most Fascinating Flora. Harpercollins Publishers Inc, 2014.
Pharmacognosy, et al. “Calabar Beans: Uses, Botanical Source, Characters, and Chemical Constituents.” The Pharmacognosy, 5 Mar. 2019, thepharmacognosy.com/calabar-beans/.
Stewart, Amy, et al. Wicked Plants: the A-Z of Plants That Kill, Maim, Intoxicate and Otherwise Offend. Timber, 2010.